Precursors to femicide: Guatemalan women in a vortex of violence

Today women in Guatemala are killed at nearly the same rate as they were in the early 1980s when the civil war became genocidal. Yet the current femicide epidemic is less an aberration than a reflection of the way violence against women has become normalized in Guatemala. Used to re-inscribe patriarchy and sustain both dictatorships and democracies, gender-based violence morphed into femicide when peacetime governments became too weak to control extralegal and paramilitary powers. The naturalization of gender-based violence over the course of the twentieth century maintained and promoted the systemic impunity that undergirds femicide today. By accounting for the gendered and historical dimensions of the cultural practices of violence and impunity, we offer a re-conceptualization of the social relations that perpetuate femicide as an expression of post-war violence.     

Unexpected Human Fatality Associated with Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) Heat Treatment

Thermal insect treatments can be an effective method of controlling cryptic insect pests, particularly bed bugs, in residential settings. The treatments require high heat over a sustained timeframe. Residents are not present during treatment but return after completion. An unexpected death was investigated following heat treatment for bed bugs in the home of an elderly female, found with a postmortem axillary temperature of 106.2°F (41.2°C) approximately 8 h after returning home. The cause of death was classified as hyperthermia with a contributory cause of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. The manner of death was an accident. The decedent had medical history and medications that could have impaired her ability to dissipate heat. Furthermore, the air conditioning inside the residence was not functional following treatment. Recommendations including education regarding heat stroke and treatment, re‐entry timeframes, and/or temperature thresholds are suggested to reduce the risk of heat‐related injury or death in vulnerable populations.     

Role Conflict and the Psychological Impacts of the Post-Ferguson Period on Law Enforcement Motivation,Cynicism, and Apprehensiveness

In the wake of high-profile deadly force cases in the post-Ferguson era, a number of negative psychological outcomes have been depicted by law enforcement officers. We examine if negative post-Ferguson outcomes predict current cynicism, motivation, and apprehensiveness. Further, we account for whether role orientations, specifically support for a law enforcement orientation or a community policing orientation, mediate the psychological effects of the post-Ferguson period. Since the law enforcement orientation, exercised through strict enforcement of the law, has been called out of favor in the post-Ferguson area, supporting this role may negatively impact officers via role conflict. The opposite may be observed for those supporting a community policing orientation. We test these arguments using results from an online survey of law enforcement officers in the USA, administered 6 months following highly publicized incidents in Dallas and Baton Rouge where police were targeted and killed. Results showed that post-Ferguson psychological impacts continued to affect current levels of cynicism, motivation, and apprehensiveness. Support for law enforcement or community policing orientation did not mediate the effects of post-Ferguson sentiments. Nonetheless, role orientations played a significant role in predicting current cynicism, motivation, and apprehensiveness and provided support for the theory of role conflict.     

Spain as an Object of Jihadist Propaganda

The purpose of this article is to look at the importance and treatment that Spain receives in jihadist propaganda. This study offers a series of empirical observations based on a content analysis of a sample of propaganda produced by jihadist groups between January 1994 and September 2008. The analysis of this material, the context in which it was spread, and a comparison with other Western countries leads to the conclusion that the role played by this country in jihadist propaganda can only be understood by taking into account “structural factors” that have little to do with a greater or lesser level of interference in “Islamic affairs.”     

Penile strangulation: report of a fatal case

Penile strangulation or entrapment is an unusual entity that requires urgent treatment due to its potential complications. Several cases have been reported in the medical literature, some of them describing serious injuries such as necrosis, gangrene, and amputation of the penis. However, as far as we know, no fatal cases have been described before. We present the death of an adult male secondary to the complications due to penile strangulation with a plastic bottle neck. The time of incarceration was unknown, but according to a witness it could be about 10 to 14 days. The findings of autopsy were penile strangulation, necrosis of the penis, acute pyelonephritis, and bronchopneumonia. The subject's refusal to ask for medical help was the cause of this atypical evolution.